Wireless devices, including laptops, storage media, and smartphones, among others, are ubiquitous. Employees bring wireless devices to their work places on a daily basis, and these devices can carry gigabytes of sensitive and/or confidential information. For example, laptops, smartphones, and other wireless computing devices can store customer information such as bank account numbers, health information, credit card information, social security numbers, and a variety of other confidential information. As a result, both individuals and businesses struggle to maintain security control over critical data that may exist on their computing devices.
Almost on a daily basis there are news reports of laptops or storage media with sensitive or confidential information being stolen or lost, prompting recalls and other remediation plans. Not only is remediation following a breach of information expensive, but it can expose a business to legal challenges and cause permanent damage to the business' brand.
Wireless devices often have inherent security measures, including password protection. However, even if a wireless device is password-protected, unencrypted data can easily be obtained from the device. Further, even encrypted data can eventually be unencrypted with sufficient time and resources. Permanent deletion of confidential and/or sensitive information from a wireless computing device is desirable when the device is lost or stolen.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for methods and apparatus for ensuring data security, and more specifically, to systems and methods for ensuring that confidential and/or sensitive information stored on a wireless computing device is deleted if the device is lost or stolen.